 |
 |
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Today (30. December) is also the feast day of: Roger of Canne (d. 1129?). Like Richard of Andria (9 June) and Gerard of Potenza (30 October), Roger is a twelfth-century bishop-saint of southern Italy about whom we are very poorly informed. Our first certain testimony, it would seem, comes from a letter of Innocent V on 17 April 1276 in which he orders an investigation into a complaint of Theobald, bishop of Canne (now Canne della Battaglia, so called in recognition of the famous Roman disaster of 216 BCE when Hannibal defeated two entire consular armies here during the Second Punic War) to the effect that clerics and lay persons from Barletta had violated his cathedral, removed relics from the main altar, and taken away the body of saint Roger which had been buried next to it. Although the investigation verified the actual occurrence of these _furta sacra_, and although some relics were restored to Canne, Roger remained at Barletta, where he wound up in the convent church of Santo Stefano (today's San Ruggero). For those who were birds'-nesting in the Shire when they might have been learning something of the history of the Regno, it may be pointed out in passing that, in the Apulian economy of inland towns and their associated ports, Barletta is the port of Canne and that during the kingdom's first two centuries it grew while Canne rapidly declined. In the 1270s Canne, though still an episcopal seat, had been largely abandoned and the bulk of the population with historic ties to the place doubtless lived in and about Barletta. So there was eminent practical justification for not restoring this saint to his former hill town. In the fourteenth century, after the bishops of Canne had transferred their residence to Barletta, Roger became one of this city's two patrons (the other is the Madonna dello Sterpeto, celebrated for her aid after the earthquake of 1731); whereas today is his proper feast, his patrocinio at Barletta is celebrated in the second week of July (better weather; more tourists). Surviving toponomastic evidence shows that Roger had been venerated at Canne since at least the late 12th century. But when did he live and who was he? Though his name suggests Norman parentage, it hardly proves it (in the wake of the 11th-century Norman-led conquest of Byzantine southern Italy "Roger" became a popular name in this region). In the absence of pertinent diocesan records, historians have settled on the Roger documented from other cities as bishop of Canne in the first two decades of the 12th century. Under the circumstances, this is a very reasonable guess. There is a 14th-century office for Roger from Canne and a 16th-century one from Barletta; the latter is the one published in the _Acta Sanctorum_ (Oct. tom. 7.). A very late and obviously unreliable Vita places him in the sixth century. For further details and bibliography, see Giovanni Lucchesi, "Ruggero, vescovo di Canne," _Bibliotheca Sanctorum_, vol. 11 (1968), cols. 491-93, and Ruggiero Lattanzio's informative but undocumented survey (helpful for the later history of the cult) at http://www.enrosadira.it/santi/r/ruggero.htm Best (and Happy New Year to all), John Dillon ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html